What is Riso?

Risograph printers were originally designed for high-volume printing and have been adopted by creatives due to their unique aesthetic, unrivalled speed & affordability. They use environmentally friendly, soy-based inks, which can take longer to dry than traditional inks. Riso is a mechanical process similar to screen-printing; the printer creates a stencil wrapped around an ink-filled drum which then spins to transfer an impression onto paper.

PAPER

Our go-to paper stock is Munken; versatile, affordable & available in a range of weights. We can suggest papers or if you have a specific paper in mind we can order it in, most uncoated papers from 60 to 350gsm are usable. The maximum print size is A3 not full bleed.

Artworking

To keep text & line art as vectors when exporting artwork do not rasterize. All type & solid shapes should be set to RGB BLACK (R:0 G:0 B:0). Artwork is to be supplied as individual grayscale PDFs for each print colour. The machine will register different shades of black & the output will reflect this. Providing PDF proofs for your artwork is extremely helpful & direct us as to how you expect your project to look.

RISO QUIRKS

Registration is tricky to get perfect. Trapping (overlapping colours) will help. When producing prints with multiple layers marks can be left by the paper feeder, particularly on double-sided prints. These are easily rubbed out with an eraser. Print any super large blocks of colour at a reduced opacity.

The machine will struggle to reproduce type smaller than 6pt. Avoid setting type in Photoshop as it will rasterise and look pixelated.

Creep: When multiple sheets are folded & bound each page is slightly further from the bound edge. When trimmed, more paper is removed from the centre than front & back. It’s not so noticeable with fewer sheets & lighter paper but can be critical if overlooked.

FINISHING

We can facilitate most types of finishing: binding, foiling, embossing etc. Some are done in-house & we work with external finishers to complete projects in the best way possible.